


Limits Rebuffed

by Oakentide



Series: SAO Pride Week [4]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gyms, M/M, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 11:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19317316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oakentide/pseuds/Oakentide
Summary: Written for SAO Prideweek 2019's Day 4 prompt. Strength.After countless hours of practice in the virtual world, and with the support of his boyfriend Eiji, Kirito is ready for his toughest challenge yet: his first gym session.





	Limits Rebuffed

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, everyone who's been waiting. The next chapter should be less than two months away. I do intend to finish this series, even though the story that ties all of these prompt responses together is more ambitious than anything I've ever properly finished. 
> 
> Special thanks to aj_linguistik and HisuiNeko for beta reading this chapter and providing feedback.

As the automatic doors slid open, I looked around for a reception kiosk. A woman called me over, waving, and indicated where my membership card should be scanned. Some gym members passed by me while I was fishing through my backpack, and I noted which doors they went through once I’d heard the terminal confirm my acceptance. On the way to the changing rooms, both the walls and my augmented view came to life, inundated with advertisements. Products I’d been researching this morning were pulsating into and out of the centre of my view, though I couldn’t recall most of them from any of the sports science journals. Eiji did suggest that I just disable my augmented reality overlays in here, and I think I properly understood why now. After changing into my workout clothes, I dismissed everything on my screen and restricted the permissions of the gym’s program.

I found him in the weights section, near a row of racks, each for heavy free weight leg exercises. I checked the time; I was almost an hour late. My boyfriend’s hair was matted down with sweat, his baggy workout clothes creased while he held a squat position, and he hadn’t noticed me. I called out to him as I made my way over. 

“Ah, sorry! I got caught up in researching the different forms I might need to use for my exercises...”

Eiji sighed, but the sigh transitioned into a grunt of effort as he began to stand up. A barbell was supported by his crossed arms on the front, and he was leaning back just a little. He cried out with a gust of breath to finish the repetition. After stepping back, he knelt down to rest the barbell on the rack that was behind him. There were quite a few plates attached to it, and Eiji spoke as I watched him remove a locking peg from each side then attach two more from a store rack.

“At your level you can’t do _any_ of them properly. You just have to get started.”

I felt my face sink.

“Well, I wanted to know which one you thought I should-“

“Please.” I looked up from my feet. Eiji held both palms up, but not out, as he cut me off.

“They’ll _all_ work your quadriceps. The differences between them matter once you’ve built those.” I hummed thoughtfully before replying.

“So since some exercises are simpler than others, I should prioritise computational ease for now.”

He smiled and nodded. “Right. So show me a simple bodyweight squat.”

I groaned. There were a few more complicated exercises I’d tried in fulldive using a stronger avatar, and I was excited to try some of them with my real body. This one was the simplest of them all, and yet...

I felt exhaustion immediately. It wasn’t just the burning in my muscles, the efforts of which were already feeling weaker. Nor was it the proprioceptive awareness of these muscles no longer complying with mental commands I’d rehearsed for hours in VR. It was as though some unknown reserve, whose abundance I have always taken for granted, was tapped out on account of the _strain_ of those commands. Vivid, fleeting memories of times I’d been at the brink of my willpower in virtual worlds coursed through me, but the nature of this stress was entirely different, draining me in a new way.

I made eye contact with Eiji as I held the squat at the lowest position. I was ready to abort the repetition by rising immediately and quickly - but Eiji had already adopted the demeanour of a trainer, complete with a hard stare. After some time, he nodded. In agony, I struggled through this motion that I barely considered an _exercise_ in fulldive. My legs burned, again. My hips and thighs buckled as they steadied my posture. Even focusing on where my eyes were looking started to hurt. I finally reached a standing position, and noticed Eiji’s eyes going wide.

Breathless, I started drawing the deepest gulps of air I could to avoid panting – an ignominy after just a single repetition. A number of repetitions made up a set; the number of sets and the resting time between them constituted your routine. I’d researched how these numbers can be adjusted to change the nature of an exercise’s load on the muscles, but like all the esoteric variations of squats I’d investigated, it seemed to be moot given how tired only one repetition made me. I dreaded attempting a second, but tilted my hips, ready to go down.

At this point, I must have looked even worse than I felt; Eiji stopped me – curiously, sporting a proud look, now.

“Save the rest for after you’ve warmed up. But your form is fantastic. I think you’re finally ready to really push it. Any of the cardio machines is fine; just keep moving until I come find you. My routine for squats should be finished in about ten minutes.”

I scanned the machines on offer. Both my boyfriend and I had flexible working hours, allowing us to come here during quiet hours, when most members are at work, so I had any choice I wanted. The rowing machine worked my whole body, but I wasn’t sure which resistance level I should be using. I was still in the habit of using my motorcycle to get around, but my stamina on the bicycle was almost enough to rely on, and I wanted to improve that. I knew that the treadmill wouldn’t be a suitable warm down on a day where I trained my leg muscles, so I didn’t want to start with that, either. The cross walker was simple enough, but I wasn’t sure I had the optimal balance between my arms and my legs driving the motion. I settled on the exercise bicycle. I had managed to complete three kilometres when I saw Eiji through the mirrors as he approached me.

We both sat down on the floor, on soft exercise mats, and he guided me through an assortment of stretches. None of these were familiar to me, but they helped loosen me up before I began the weight lifting exercises. Compared to the newbie workout routines I’d been reading this morning, Eiji allowed me to take longer rests and stopped me one or two sets short. These were also simple exercises – the squat, the bench press, and the dead lift. It still hurt all the same, but I was more worried about the appraising look Eiji had the whole time while watching me.

“Let’s go back to the stretching area. We’re good for weights today, and I’ll show you something else I want you to try.”

My legs felt too soft to move me, but with abrupt, jerky motions I followed him. After placing his towel on the mat, he lay down on it face-up, then with his body created a smooth, concave arc from his outstretched fingertips to his feet. He barely touched the ground, only a small part of his back wasn’t raised. After holding this position for a few seconds, he relaxed then stood up.

“It’s a dish. A gymnastics staple which works the core muscles. You won’t see it on any bodybuilding sites but a strong core prevents injury, especially for novices. I’d like to see how you try one.”

“I already feel like my chest and back are sore. I don’t think I’d even be able to get it up off the ground, let alone hold it like you’re doing.”

 “Well, that’s also why we’re saving it for last. It’s recruited in and enhances all of the other exercises. You don’t want it getting tired early, or it’ll ruin your technique for what you do after it.”

I didn’t feel convinced, even when Eiji put an arm around me.

“It won’t matter if you fail the repetition. Your body will just splay out, and then you can attempt the next rep.”

I was on my back, facing up, and then brought my arms above the ground, softly trying to imitate what I remembered as Eiji watched. The back of my shoulders lifted very slightly above the ground, and I felt my back seem to press together. I lifted my feet, then my legs, above the ground. It was effort, but it burned in a different way. My muscles began to tremble, and-

“Stop.”

I exhaled. I didn’t realise I was holding my breath. How long were these repetitions?

“Again.”

I felt imprecision. My body made a crude, graceless, _jolt_ that approximated what Eiji described and performed. It vaguely seemed right. Pain tore through my muscles, hobbling my various disjointed efforts to hold the position. Before, when lifting the weights, this pain felt like an extremely hot, thin wire embedded in my muscles. I’d instead compare this to a branding iron, pressed onto and throughout my shoulders, torso, abdominals and lower back. I had resolved to counting the seconds between being ordered to tense and relax, but couldn’t focus on anything besides persevering.

As I continued, I did notice that the sets had less generous rests between them, and that I had to do three of them. On the last few repetitions of the final set, I felt a glimmer of clarity: my stomach pushing my back against the ground. Somehow, this made my back feel like it was pressed together, but in an intentional, coordinated way. A soft, easy smile on one side of my boyfriend’s lips greeted me when I returned from yet another drink break.

“I was worried until you started the dishes, but I think I understand now.”

“Could you explain? For the other exercises I’m doing fewer sets than the beginner’s routine, and I’m resting for minutes longer than I should be. Is the problem that I’m injury prone?”

If I wasn’t so tired, I’d have followed up some of his response with further questions – but I just listened.

“No, it isn’t that. Two sets of eight reps, five minute rests. This wouldn’t normally create a muscle building load response in a beginner because their technique is developing. As their form improves, their muscles are loaded more during an exercise – but this means they reach a sufficient load with less reps. At that point, further reps even risk tearing the muscle. Longer rests safeguard against that, but for beginners, rests that are too long will cool the muscles down. It’s also important for beginners to keep the workout fresh in their memory. Beginners are thus advised not to worry about form, only to put in consistent work. This is because their muscles simply fail before reaching the point where further reps might risk injury.”

The proud smirk Eiji offered after seeing that first repetition was back, and that left me at ease as he continued.

“So, if someone had perfect form the very first time they attempted an exercise, what would that do to their muscles?”

“They’d be exhausted quickly, and need fewer sets. I get it.”

“Exactly. You know, some athletes have already tried training with fulldive. To supplement their existing training, which meant they began with at least some physical conditioning already. But I’ve also seen a handful of wealthy amateurs who have tried what you’re trying. Like you, they saw a VR approach as a way to avoid the first, very unpleasant strain of a newbie’s first resistance exercises...”

I felt embarrassed. Eiji chuckled, and then paused, when he noticed my uneasy smile. But in my defence...

“...You’re not wrong, but I was also procrastinating, really...”

“...Well, they all also had a rude awakening, finding quickly that the body itself needs development alongside that training for the purely mental priming to be useful. Of course, none of them had the neurological power and tenacity of the hero from Aincrad! You’ve been willing your body to perform things it has no business doing. This is confirmed by how you attempted the dish exercises, and how quickly your form improved. Those last few reps were _perfect_.”

I brightened. I knew that I was physically quite out of practice, too. It had been years since Eiji and I were competing with each other in the augmented reality game Ordinal Scale, and that was the last time I’d undertook a physical training regimen in real life. The situation would improve, and I felt a little foolish for being as worried as I was. Eiji grinned.

“I think if you’d been practising in that “Soul Translator” which you’ve been talking about, you’d have passed out trying those squats. Towards the end of the squat workout from today, the blood had drained from your face completely...”

As he continued, Eiji turned on his augmented reality device.

“...Which reminds me... hold on...”

Eiji made a few quick motions with his fingers in front of him. He looked to be dismissing about two dozen targeted ad overlays, based on the movements and how disgruntled he looked, then moved a file between two folders he’d summoned.

“...There. I sent you a motion capture of me doing dishes at a few heights. These can be read by the program you used to patch my VR gear.”

My face lit up as I thanked him. As if in response to this, Eiji continued, the stern, considered tone warning me as much as the words did.

“I can’t imagine how VR drills would help recovery time. They would probably inhibit the local signal involved in muscle recovery, prolonging the rest needed. But when your muscles aren’t sore anymore, add these to whatever you’re doing. Once you can hold the third dish position for five minutes, _in real life_ , I’ll give you new exercises.”

There was no doubt he was enjoying how bewildered I looked. Five minutes!? Unbelievable. But I’m sure Eiji could easily manage ten, just because he’s kept at this for so long. I might be able to program the motion capture to impose an image over my own avatar, so that I could get the position exactly right.

“Your workout for today is done, now, but I still have my floor training to go. Go shower and change. I’ll meet you back at the lobby in about ninety minutes?”

I stepped closer to Eiji and pulled him into a quick hug.

“See you then.”

After I changed out of my clothes, I switched off the last of my overlay devices, leaving the gear in a waterproof case which hung from the shower wall. Holding only my hand under the shower rose, I waited until the temperature was what I wanted. On a stressful day like today, I indulged in a too-warm shower where possible. This sort of creature comfort wasn’t there, even if I wanted it, in both the death game Sword Art Online _and_ Underworld, the world of the Alicization Project, so I savoured it whenever I could. My boyfriend took cold showers in the morning, and he’d probably been at the gym for at least an hour before I was scheduled to arrive. I did want to improve my fitness, but had no desire to attain either Eiji’s level of fitness _or_ maintain the discipline it required.

I spent the same amount of time that Eiji did in Sword Art Online, but our experiences were completely different. I’d only heard of him through the grapevine – an ex-clearer whose fulldive nonconformity proved a liability in the 40th Floor Labyrinth, ultimately leading to his exclusion from that Floor’s Boss Battle, and departure from the Knights of the Blood Oath. As I learned later on, he had mastered intermediate Sword Skills at a relatively low level by grinding one-handed sword techniques in a safe zone, which allowed him to reach the level of the floor clearing parties with minimal risk. Due to a technical issue, any emotional distress Eiji experienced would impede Sword Skill activation, and sometimes any control over his avatar. This was not properly exposed until the fight in that Labyrinth. Concurrent with the 40th Floor Boss Battle was an incident in which his childhood friend Yuuna was killed during an instance of fulldive nonconformity. It was incredibly bad luck that the incident occurred at a time when most of the clearers were occupied, but Eiji considered himself solely responsible for her death.

He stagnated in an inn on the 1st Floor, impotence leading to indolence, until the game was cleared. For another year after that, he lived alone in a small apartment funded by his parents, who’d presumed him dead and weren’t prepared to house him.  It seemed that when Tetsuhiro, Yuuna’s father, approached him offering an exosuit and a realistic mission to restore Yuuna’s life, Eiji was properly freed from that self-doubt. Since then, his life has had direction, he has felt capable, and Eiji has always found new goals to fill in the vacuum, feverishly trying to make up for all of this lost time.

As for myself, I was one of the clearers of Sword Art Online from the very beginning, pushing the front lines closer and closer to the 100th Floor. For two years, we worked hard on a continuous basis, but there was no respite following that. In the following months, I rescued Asuna, determined the truth of the Death Gun Incident, and then desperately tried to cram years’ worth of school study into weeks. This finally culminated on my heart being poisoned by Johnny Black, of the player-killing guild, Laughing Coffin. I then experienced two subjective years of accelerated fluctlight consciousness in Project Alicization. I now coast through university on a part-time basis, supporting myself as a freelance programmer. For all of his faults, Kikouka, the mastermind of that project, provided enough early business through his contacts that I could secure a good reputation. There isn’t the same impetus now that there consistently has been since I began the beta test of Sword Art Online.

Sometimes I feel that my body is still adjusting to the placid everyday life in which I find myself now.  These fitness routines, complete with Eiji’s prodding, are a notable exception. My body might also still be adjusting to consciousness at normal speed, aging at its normal speed rather than one thousandth of the speed of thought. As such, you could say that our “internal fluctlight reference frames” were discordant. Of course, this led to conflict at times, but he’s certainly made me grow, too.

Once I’d changed into new clothes, and my familiar augmented reality interfaces were back, I made my way back to the lobby. It would be a few hours until my muscles would get sore, and then I’d probably be out of commission for a few days. My goal wasn’t weight loss, but to build muscle, and these were distinct metabolic processes. This is what I told myself when I treated myself to a beef stir fry meal from a nearby food court as I waited. When I came back, it was another ten minutes until I was due to meet Eiji. He would finish today’s workout with gymnastics floor practice, so I waited in a grandstand that oversaw the gymnasium from a level above. I easily picked him out, and found I wasn’t the only person in the audience here just to see him.

I could barely follow what he was doing. There were flips and twists involved in long sequences. Powerful kicks carried his momentum through direction changes as he pushed with explosive force off of the ground, reaching the air again, only one foot or arm touching the ground before he launched himself again. It was a slower version of what I remembered him doing during the Ordinal Scale incident, but with more flourish and creativity. I wondered what augmentations he was using, and that was the first thing I asked him when we met again in the lobby of the gym, after he’d showered and changed.

“I saw the last parts of your routine... I can barely believe it. Did you have any gear on?”

Eiji was stiff and quiet in his reply.

“Just the leotard.”

“Wait, really? That’s amazing. It looks like using the fulldive properly to train could put you at a serious competitive advantage when it comes to progressing your gymnastics ability.”

“...Well... that’s true...”

Eiji trailed off, looking like he was unsure whether to continue.

“But I try not to look at it that way. I don’t intend to compete, exactly.”

“Why not? I’m sure you’d do great. Maybe you would revolutionise the sport.”

“Let me try to explain.”

After another long pause, he asked me, “You remember dual wielding, back in the death game, right?”

“Yes. But I wonder if I’d have been the one using it if the game were run today. Another machine, the Medicuboid, was even more invasive than the Nervegear– and a girl running another game on it was even faster than I was. The Soul Translator allowed for even greater fidelity in neural inputs...and in the Underworld, I met hundreds of swordsmen borne from bottom-up artificial intelligence who were much faster than I was.”

Jagged memories that had been covered, not properly buried, still hurt to recall, even in an animated conversation about technology.

“If any of them could have made it to Aincrad, I guess you’d be asking them about it, instead.”

I’d long broken the spell of “being the Black Swordsman” on myself, so felt no shame in adding the last part of my reply.

“Or anyone else who was using either the Medicuboid or the STL.”

Come to think of it, if commercially available, those would lead to delineated tiers in the virtual reality gaming market.

“Well, out of the pool of SAO players and given the available technology, it was you who earned that dual blade skill through grinding monsters solo. You trained in VR more than anyone else, for the longest time.”

“Okay, I understand. But it’s still the result, not how I earned it. I’m not sure that I have, I was just the only power gamer who also had access to the beta.”

“You earned that dual blade skill by training in VR more than anyone else, for the longest time. It’s clearly the most efficient way to build neurological connections. But that doesn’t account for the _peripheral_ nervous system, the collection of activation thresholds and feedback loops that comprise muscle memory. More muscle, more nuanced neurological connections. Even in fulldive – and fulldive training trains you to make the most explosive _use_ of that potential.“

“In that exosuit, I found I had better reflexes. I also had better reflexes with the exosuit on while full diving - at least when I wasn’t dealing with fulldive non-conformity. This is despite that exosuit only accelerating muscular movements through local stimulation of those areas themselves, suppressing muscle inhibition safeguards, and then cushioning all tissue from the requisite impact that causes. No direct change to my neurological activity whatsoever, but it profoundly enhanced my fulldives.”

He held a screen out for us both to view, then started playing a video. There was some footage I’d seen before, captured of him dominating the augmented reality game Ordinal Scale. Before I had really gotten to know him. There was also some CCTV footage of the parking basement in which we fought. Already I was picking apart mistakes we’d both made in that fight, though I held my tongue, expecting that to not be the point of why he was showing this to me.

“If I can combine these two approaches to training, then I’ll be able to do all of this, everything I did in that exosuit, without anything on.”

“Oh! But imagine if you did all of this, and _then_ put the exosuit on?”

In response to this, Eiji looked at the footage again, appraising it one more time. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that he was calculating the new rate of progress from making another of those exosuits. Such equipment might change the tiers of neurological engagement I’d been thinking about earlier. He dismissed the video player and nodded, with his arms folded, contemplating.

“Yeah... I guess I’d be even faster, then.”

It was my turn to grin.


End file.
